new build

[shaneh890]

Im building a pc for my dad, he wants to use it for web surfing and other normal uses along with some of the lower end softwares for design like sketchup 3d. would a gtx 1660 be overkill for his system?

[camieabz]

Probably. The 1650 range would be more than enough. Maybe even a GT 1030, if he's not into 1080p HD vids.

[noodlespinbot]

wouldn't an iGPU work

[Steel_Wind]

Yes, it's WAY overkill. More to the point - a graphics card like that is also for all practical purposes unavailable, no matter what you might notionally prefer or think. 

 

If all your Dad is going to do with this PC is browse the web, use general office apps and something like Sketchup, (without trying to render anything) an integrated GPU on the board is a much cheaper approach. Plus, it has the additional benefit of being something you can actually buy that isn't overpriced.

Really, the non-availability of any GPU for now and into the foreseeable future from now through to the last quarter of 2021 and even into 2022 can't be stressed enough. We are in an unprecedented period of critical shortages here. (It is, in fact, so bad that semiconductor supply shortages are now affecting the auto and aerospace industries; the US government is now investigating and there will probably be hell to pay before this is over.) 

 

Your Dad sounds like an unsophisticated everyday common user. Which makes him like just about everybody else - except that most of those "everybody else" people aren't here on the LTT forums. Please appreciate that we have a deeply distorted view of what most people actually need when it comes to a computer. If your Dad's eyes aren't what they used to be (mine aren't either) then look at getting an Intel NUC and mount it on the back of a 27" to 32" 1080p monitor - or have it sit just under it. The advent of fast small m.2 SSDs will let you put a decent little box on the back of a good sized monitor that is easy on the eyes & doesn't take up much space at all. You can even have the keyboard and mouse be simple Logitech transmitter style wireless input devices and the box itself on Wifi. One power cable to the monitor and a smaller one to the NUC from the power brick on the floor. That's it. Clean, elegant, simple.

It's not the kind of computer a gamer would want, but your Dad doesn't need something like that. He'll appreciate the simple space saving design. And a NUC is quiet as hell ,too. 

One thing is nice: there isn't a shortage in the monitor market. Indeed, as the market is moving fast to 4k, there has never been a better time to buy 1080p monitors. There are some very good ones available for cheap. And they work well.

I'd go that route instead (unless you are trying to build a PC out of scavenged/used parts on hand, that is)